Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1887-07-14
w. G. Il. u.
TEMPERANCE COLUMN
The Woman Condemned.
BY KATE BUsHNELL, NJ. n.

6uC WHO eNcT InOuSHJ losing. Whpru E&s
is my wandering girl?" E
Oh, it is pitiful! A vast army ~
them in every large cityl At night Won 81
can go out on the street and see them EI
cast out OF their homes q
and dead, dead, dead in trespasses and
sins! Their features are blackened and b
bloated. They are young in every. s
thing but suffering. They are thrown
out to become the objects of contempt
and to be devoured by the jackals Of y
society, who are old in cunning and Of
Unsuitable rapacity.
There are thousands upon thousands
of homeless, disgraced girls lurking
about the street-corners of our large
cities ut night. There are thousands
of bad men and boys with them. But
when the men and boys get tired of the
streets they go reeling home to faithful
wives and patient mothers. But when
the girls get tired they must go to the
brothel or else to the black-howinp
river" for that is the only thing charit-
able enough to throw a cover over
their shame and hide them away from
the derision of the world.
The ruined girl, like the victim Of
is cast out of her home, and
there is but one road for her to travel.
AT one end it leads to her mothers
heart, the other end is in hell The
road is hedged on one side by public
disgrace, on the other by her babe and
the resulting physical weakness. She
cannot live without food; she cannot
get food without money; she cannot
get money except by work or impurity;
she cannot get work without reputa-
ton. Perhaps some one is bold
enough to take her without reputation,
but then she has newborn babe, and
no strength to do the work furnished.
DR.. Talmage says of her: "You
write beautiful poetry oyer her sorrows
and weep over her misfortunes, but
give her practical help you never will.
There is not one person out of thous-
and that will-there is not one out of
five thousand that has come SO near the
heart Of the Lord Jesus Christ as to
dare to help one of these fallen souls.
But you say, Are there no ways by
which the wanderer may escape?' Oh,
yes! three or four. The one way
is the sewing-girls garret, dingy, cold.
hunger-blasted. But you say, is there
no other way for her to escapeY Oh,
yes! Another way is the East river, at
midnight, the end dof the city dock, the
moon shining down on the water, maxi
ing it look SO smooth she wonders if it
is deep enough. 1t is. No boatman
near enough to pick her out before she
sinks the third time. No other way?'
Yes. BY the curve of the Hudson
River Railroad, at the point where the
engineer of the lightning express train
cannot see a hundred yards ahead to
the form that lies across the track. He
may whistle down brakes but not
soon enough to disappoint the one seek
ing her death. But yo u say, Isn't God
good. won't He forgiven Yes; but
man will not. woman will not, society
will not. The Church of God says it
will, but it will not"
When woman falls she falls lower
than man." Sink the plumb-line of
justice down to the fallen womans
level; it goes no lower than the bad
mans level. But do not measure her
character now, but her reputation.
All, in this there is an inequality be-
tween her and man! She certainly has
fallen lower than man-lower in socie-
ty's estimate, that is all.
In many years of experience with
the fallen have seen but one woman
who sheltered her daughter after dis
grace. and l have known not one case
where a woman has refused shelter to
a son because he was parent to an ille-
gitimate child. The excuse, then, that
the child is cast out for the moral safe
ty of the home falls fiat before such
evidence. Delinquent, unm otherly
women are largely responsible for
keeping in existence the class Of out
cast women which libertines are inter-
ested in creating. Mothers too often
neglect their girls until disgraced, and
then turn them out to hopeless ruin.
Oh, shame to faithless motherhood that
sacrifices its motherly instincts to the
dictates of custom! For once it is to
be found fault with.
The custom that abandons the dis
graced girl to hopeless ruin is no less
injurious in effect upon the morals of
the street than cruel to the members of
the household. The crowd gathers
about the outcast. and the very best of
them for a moment lose faith in the
boundless mercy and limitless power Of
i the Lord Jesus. Looking upon the
blackened, distorted features that were
once beautiful in limo cence. they say,
THAT woman can't be saved; she's be-
yond the reach OF mercy. What fear
full judgement for her sins!'
Others make gossip of her terrible
shame. They exaggefate and villify
and whisper and mYstify, while child
ren listen around corners with wide
open mouths. and too often learn their
first lesson in slyness and filth from
their own parents gossip. Scandal is
introduced into their play, and they
seek books that will describe more full
ly horrible details like those they hear
discussed.
Continued
/ CITY DRAY LINE,